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Several years ago I took up the hobby of pottery. It was good therapy for a hard time I was going through at the time, and as always I looked for spiritual lessons in what I was doing. There are many, but one stands out from all the rest. Every bowl or vase I made bore the inscription DLA on the bottom, to identify it's creator. Each piece was a lot of work, and could be ruined at any point in the process - a bad move on the wheel, a problem in the kiln during the first firing, breakage while trimming the 'green-ware', badly applied glazes, and of course simple accidental breakage of the final, sometimes beautiful piece. When such an accident happened, I often felt badly at the loss of time invested and potential beauty and utility, but I never shed any tears over it. After all, it was just a created "thing", and things can be replaced.
The hard time I mentioned had to do with having lost my seven-year old daughter to leukemia. Now there's a heart wrenching loss! She wasn't just some created "thing" that could be replaced, she was my flesh and blood. While she didn't carry an inscription like the pottery, she bore in her countenance the clear indication of her parentage. One feature of her Mom's, and another of mine - it was clear to anyone who knew her from whom she came and by whom she was loved. She was loved so deeply I would have gladly traded my life for hers if there was any way I could have, but that wasn't within my power. Do you think I shed tears over her loss? Indeed! In fact, it doesn't take much even now, fourteen years later, to start them flowing.
Now the spiritual question - what is man's relationship to God? Are we merely created "things", or are we in fact his children? The answer's in the Bible, quite clearly in places, but it's more often couched in symbolism. For a definitive answer, we need to look to modern revelation. Two scriptures come to mind that show clearly the difference between the "creation", and the status of man. First, the creation: "And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten." (Moses 1:33) Then distinguishing between the creation and the status of man: "That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (D&C 76:24) Both verses point out the fact that Jesus was in fact "The Creator" under the direction of God the Father, while the second verse shows that we aren't just created beings, but are actually literal children of our Heavenly Father. The reference to the Son being the "Only Begotten" refers to the fact that Jesus was the only begotten "in the flesh", while the second reference points out that the spirits of all mankind are in fact begotten spirit children of God the Father.
What a joyous doctrine! We're not just shards of broken pottery to be swept up in a dust-pan and discarded. We're God's children, whom he loves beyond measure, and for whom he created the whole world. He takes joy in our successes, and sorrows over our follies.
While we learn this clearly from modern revelation, the Bible confirms it for us. From the mouth of Jesus himself: "...I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God." (John 20:17) In Hebrews we read: "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9) Similar thoughts can be found in Isaiah 64:8 (even uses the potter simile) and Malachi 2:10.
Now everything I've said so far concerns the spirit of man - that which animates the body. It is that spirit which is the literal child of God. But mortal man is a dual being consisting of an individual spirit and a body of flesh and bones which has tendencies altogether different from those of the spirit. Matthew tells us that "...the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak. (Matthew 26:41) Mosiah, a Book of Mormon prophet, explains how this conflict of seeming opposites can be resolved. He wrote: "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
Thus we see that with the dichotomy of our nature comes also a necessary dichotomy in our approach to life if we are to come off victorious. First, we have to be strong and forceful if we are to "put off" the natural man. This is no small battle. It requires a strong and courageous spirit to take control of a body that would rather go the way of the world. The spirit having done that (and it's a lot harder to do than to write about) needs then to switch modes and be submissive, meek and humble in approaching the Lord. It sounds like a balancing act, but it's really not that hard. The spirit child within us yearns for contact with our Father, and that communication, once established (or more correctly re-established) is a powerful force that can help us maintain the necessary control over the "natural man" that's a part of us.
The bottom line? The gospel of Jesus Christ is about possibilities! Man is not just a created being, but is rather a loved child of God. What are the possibilities for the children of God? They're endless and marvelous and beyond imagination. We can't be pessimists who are the children of God. Our inborn heritage is optimism and that's a great and uplifting thing. One can't help but feel good about one's self with an understanding of this doctrine. Whatever our current condition or status, we can take control. We can set things right by subjecting the waywardness of the flesh to the spirit within us, and with the help and grace of the Savior (and persistent effort on our own behalf) we can start toward a glorious destiny. What a wonderfully uplifting doctrine! And it's true! It really is true! The next time you hear the phrase "I'm only human", turn it into "I am a child of God", and see what a difference it makes. Instead of an excuse for failure, make it into a motive to succeed.